Cotton futures closed slightly softer Tuesday on sales by small speculators in quiet business with most players waiting for the release later this week of the average world price (AWP) of cotton to give direction to the market, analysts said.
The New York Board of Trade's July cotton contract shed 0.21 cent to end at 51.39 cents a lb, ranging from 51.35 to 51.75 cents. New-crop December lost 0.41 to 55.87 cents. One contract aside, the rest fell 0.10 to 0.40 cent.
"It has no feature until the AWP has made its change on Thursday afternoon," said Mike Stevens of brokers SFS Futures in Mandeville, Louisiana.
He said there is a "smattering of mostly spec buying finding more than enough trade hedge selling to keep the market from going anywhere on the upside."
Cotton contracts were trapped in a narrow band with only small speculators content to trade the market within its range, dealers said.
Fundamentally, market players were monitoring growing weather in the US cotton belt.
A report by Sharon Johnson of First Capitol Group said reports of absolute losses in south Texas could provide some support for cotton.
She said instances of "abandonment (of cotton acres) will mount and yields will remain under pressure in almost every cotton producing state" as the start of the next marketing year (August/July) looms.
The other piece of news the market will look forward to would be the weekly export sales report from the US Department of Agriculture, which is due to be release Thursday.
Broker Flanagan Trading Corp sees support in the July cotton contract at 50.80 and 50.10 cents, with resistance at 51.60 and 52.10 cents. Floor dealers said final trading volume was estimated at 8,000 lots, from the prior count of 11,230 lots. Open interest rose 3,817 lots to 171,633 contracts as of May 15.